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Mailbag: Matt Ryan’s Replacement, Worst ‘Sopranos’ Character and More

CBS has an ‘NFL Today’ opening. Who will the Cowboys play on Thanksgiving? Did ‘The Sopranos’ have a bad character?
Jimmy Traina|
The cast of “The NFL Today” is down to three after the departure of Matt Ryan.
The cast of “The NFL Today” is down to three after the departure of Matt Ryan. | CBS

Welcome to the first mailbag of 2026. Solid questions this time around, so thank you for that. Let’s get right into it.

That’s a great point about Rodgers and the new owners of CBS. However, I would be shocked if Rodgers took a TV job right away. He has said many times that he will not go into the media world post-retirement, which is easy for him to say now. But I’d still be surprised if he retired now and went into TV in 2026. My prediction is podcast first, then TV for Rodgers.

Obviously, Mike Tomlin is out there, and I’m sure CBS will have a conversation with him. CBS is using Kyle Long and Kirk Cousins on its studio show this weekend. Long is already in the CBS family, so he could be a possibility. If Cousins decides he’s had a enough of playing, you’d have to think he’d be in the mix, as well.

It’s no secret that I’m biased here because I’m friends with Kyle Brandt, but I’d love to see CBS give him a shot at the desk. I’ve said for many years that I’m tired of the former player and former coach getting every studio job. I think these shows desperately need a person who didn’t play in the NFL to offer a different perspective on things. CBS already had the former coach in Bill Cowher and the former player in Nate Burleson. That’s enough. Brandt, who already does work for The NFL Today on CBS in addition to his Good Morning Football duties with NFL Network, would add a different element to the pregame show, which are basically all the same across all networks.

CBS should be looking Ryan’s departure as an opportunity to do something different. Not the same old, same old.

I think everything is on the table when ESPN finally takes over the NFL Network, which will happen in very early April, based on what I’ve heard.

I don’t know if ESPN would move Good Morning Football back to New York, but it should. Having people go on the air at 5 a.m. local time in Los Angeles is just absurd.

My guess is that you’ll see a lot of crossover, with NFL Network folks regularly appearing on ESPN and ESPN talent appearing on the NFL Network.

I would say there’s no chance that Peter Schrager would be back on Good Morning Football. He’s doing a totally different thing now and it just wouldn’t be logical.

The only reason McCourty left GMFB was because the show moved out West. So I don’t think you’ll be seeing him on the show as a regular host unless it moved back to New York.

ESPN President Burke Magnus told me during his November appearance on SI Media With Jimmy Traina that if Scott Van Pelt did get the 5 p.m. slot on ESPN, he would still be used for the 11:30 p.m. edition of SportsCenter when there are big events going on.

So while it may seem like ESPN would help 5 p.m., while hurting 11:30 p.m., Van Pelt would often be used in both slots.

I think Van Pelt would be a great fit at 5 p.m. Given his personality, I’d love to see him do more of a talk show/interview style program than one centered around highlights. The more of Van Pelt’s personality that we can get, the better.

I shared my thoughts on Mike Tomlin going into TV earlier this week. Networks love big names. I don’t believe they care if the person is good or not on television. If they have a big name, they have value in the eyes of executives. I don’t think fans care about big names nearly as much as executives think. Who is arguably the most popular and powerful person in sports media right now? Pat McAfee. He wasn’t a big name. He was a punter. (No offense to punters.)

You have the right answer. NBC would want the Bears in the Super Bowl more than any other team. It would want the Rams and Niners over the Seahawks.

On the AFC side, Buffalo, Denver and New England would also be NBC’s choices over Houston.

I don’t see how there isn’t a lockout. I think baseball will bounce back no matter what. Everyone will tell you that a lockout will do irreparable damage to baseball. It won’t. Once the games return, and it’s the middle of summer and your local team is playing, you will watch.

The real damage that’s being done to baseball is happening now, when only five or six teams have a chance to win the World Series every year.

Noah Eagle and Greg Olsen.

I didn’t finish The Wire only because it’s an intense show that requires 100% focus and that’s not easy for me. It’s overwhelming to have to watch that many one-hour episodes. So it’s on me, not the show.

I wouldn’t say I don’t “like” Friends now, but I can’t watch the repeats at all. I loved the show during its initial run on Thursday nights on NBC, but the reruns just don’t hold up for me at all.

I’m glad to see Andrew is an SI Media With Jimmy Traina listener, but that’s where this question comes from.

This is a fantastic question that I respect. But even if I could bet on every single Olympics event, I still wouldn’t watch the Olympics. This really isn’t that deep. I just don’t care about the Olympics in any way, shape or form.

Thank you so much for reminding me that Caleb Williams blocked me on Twitter even though I never once tweeted anything about Caleb Williams. I had totally forgotten about this. Now I will root hard for the Rams on Sunday.

This is literally the only time I’ve ever mentioned Caleb Williams’s name in a tweet.

GO RAMS!

I spent way too much time trying to come up with an answer to this question and I just couldn’t. Every single character on that show had value to me. I know a bunch of you are in the process of emailing me or sending me a message on social media to say A.J. was the worst character. I don’t feel that way. There were some amazing scenes between Tony and A.J. and Tony, A.J., Carmela and Meadow.

There wasn’t one character I could think of who made me say, “He/She sucks” when they came on screen.

A couple of Instagram questions:

Which team do you see the Cowboys being paired against for the Thanksgiving game? – @jonathangavin

The Cowboys have home games against the following teams in 2026: Giants, Eagles, Commanders, Cardinals, Niners, Jaguars, Titans, Bucs and Ravens.

I predict on Thursday, Nov. 26 at 4:30 p.m. ET, we will be watching the Cowboys host the Niners on Fox.

Sal solo is the best version of Sal. How do you think he’ll do with this YouTube channel? – @algrin

Sal is one of my closest friends and he joins every week on SI Media With Jimmy Traina. My answer to this question should be beyond obvious.

But I appreciate the question because it allows me tell you guys that Sal just launched his own show earlier this week on YouTube all the audio platforms, so check it out, subscribe and give him a follow.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on X and Instagram.

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Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

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